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Posted January 30, 2017 08:44 pm - Updated February 12, 2017 01:38 pm

Letter: U.S. has forgotten past

In 1939, a bill that would have allowed 20,000 Jewish children to come to the United States never even made it to the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote. In that same year, a ship carrying 937 Jewish refugees was turned away from the Port of Miami. From 1939 to 1945, only 200,000 Jews were allowed into the United States. Hundreds of thousands more would have come if we would have let them. We all know what happened to the ones who were left behind. And the reason we didn’t take more? God forbid that one of them should turn out to be a Nazi spy! It was because of the Holocaust that we changed our refugee policy to give those from war torn areas to rebuild their lives in our country. Until now.

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free … send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me.” There are no other qualifications or exceptions. These days it is as though we have forgotten our past, forgotten even who we are as a country and a people.